Sparks & Snow
by Nightwingess
Summary: Set December 1st of year zero for the team, Wally has something up his sleeve regarding a little adventure with Artemis.


Artemis kicked the gray snow at her feet, wondering how exactly life, or rather fate, would have such a sick sense of humor and choose to stick her with what she found to be the most obnoxious person in the world, aka Wally West.

They were stuck in some random city that looked nothing like Gotham or really like any city she had been to before; she had no idea where she was. All she saw were quiet buildings with fresh fallen snow topping the grimy gray of the old snow left out on the barren streets. She scoffed loudly, making sure he heard her. The last thing she needed was this, not with her mother's medical bills going through the roof and the spectacle that occurred at Gotham Academy because she was the only sophomore not going on the ski trip. As if she had the money, but of course people had to pick on her for it. Those were the trials of yesterday and now it seemed the world wasn't finished pissing her off just yet.

She wanted to go home and sleep in her bed, away from all the idiots at her school. Instead she was stuck with the greatest annoyance she knew.

"Well this is great." Wally said oddly calm. Just as Artemis had tried earlier, Wally had called the cave, as well as others from his contact list. There was no signal.

"Can't you just run home or something." Artemis said, expecting him to take off before she even finished her sentence. In her mind Wally was a good kid, but a kid nonetheless, the idea of him staying with her out of some chivalrous morality was laughable.

"Can't." Wally said as he stuffed his phone in his pocket, his eyes were already moving from one street sign to another, searching for a particular one. The words were in English but a few were written in some sort of slang she couldn't quite make sense of. Of course it was freezing, making it difficult for her to focus.

Wally handled the temperature differently, inhaling and exhaling in big breathes to watch the puffs of fog in front of his face. She almost wanted to smile at the childlike manner, especially when his eyes lit up by his makeshift fog, but she wouldn't, she refused to because it was him.

"Why's that Wall-Man?" She was expecting something arrogant now, somehow Wally would find a way to phrase an explanation of why he'd chosen to stay behind with her, a selfless act that she would never admit made her heart beat a bit too fast, into something that would just make her hate him more.

"Because, I can't run, not fast anyway." He moved to the end of the sidewalk, looking down the streets to see there were no cars in sight, no people. The shops were closed, the windows frosted as if unattended, no pitter patter of creatures scurrying off to their trees or nests, silence.

"I don't understand." The cold, the steel that was Artemis tempered with curiosity. She wanted to know…was he really staying behind for her? The zeta tubes weren't working, there was no one in sight, no form of transportation, was he choosing to-

"I made a bet with Rob I could eat 10 sandwiches in under ten minutes and lost, Z put a spell on me where I can't use super speed for 24 hours or something, hard to understand her when she speaks backwards." Wally moved to the other end of the street, footprints marking his trail as he stepped onto the snow, his feet soaked and freezing from the walk already.

"Wally, you idiot!" Artemis said rushing over to him to give him a good lecture, her own feet warm in her winter boots, a gift from Canary who'd heard she was running low on wearable shoes. The woman had surprised her with a whole set of boots days before she was introduced to the team, which at first was an embarrassment but she couldn't deny she needed them given her financial situation.

"Food." Wally pushed his hands against the window of a bakery, salivating, he hadn't eaten in an hour and his pockets only had cash having eaten his snacks on the mission earlier that day.

"Wally, did you hear what I said?" Artemis moved her hand over his face, trying to grab his attention, he was being awfully one sided in their conversation, almost as if he really didn't care if she was there or not.

"You called me an idiot, what else is knew." Before Artemis could say something snarky, Wally shot her a smirk, letting her know he was trying to be friendly. Artemis rolled her eyes, crossed her arms and let out a huff.

"Well what superhero agrees to lose his powers for a day because of a bet." She shoved his shoulder lightly, and he pretended it was more forcefully than it actually was, tipping back on his heels.

"Don't kill me now." Wally reached for her arm, pulling her a bit closer to him. Before she could utter another insult, he had his finger over her lips, shushing her to listen closer for the humming sound a few blocks down.

"You hear that?"

"No…"

"Food." Wally moved into sprint, jumping to the street again, laughing in excitement. No more than ten seconds later he was on his back, having missed the ice on the road entirely. His head bounced up and down while his arms and legs struggled to recover from the impact.

"Wally!" Artemis ran towards him, much more concerned for his safety than reprimanding him. She kneeled down, reaching for his head to feel for bumps, one hand on the back of his skull, the other grabbing his hand to slowly pull him up.

"That was dumb." Wally held onto her hand tightly, adjusting himself to rise with her movements. After a minute or so they were both standing up right, she with his hand still feeling for a bruise with both of their hands holding on.

"Idiot."

"I know, but food Artemis, I can hear the sound of vending machines!" Wally let out a nervous cough, slipping his fingers away from her own. He stood up, cursing himself instantly as his head began to throb.

"You have a nasty bruise back there, I felt it." Artemis stepped closer to him again, pulling her arm under his, "Now I have to keep you upright, fantastic." Wally stuck out his tongue and she resisted a smile.

The two walked closer to the humming noises, Wally because he was certain his growling stomach could be filled with wherever it was coming from and Artemis coming along to look out for him and well indulge him a bit, but certainly not to spend time with him, as if she had a choice in the matter at this point.

As they turned the corner they saw a light, one single light glowing from within a store where indeed there was a humming of vending machines as well as the sound of churning ice. It was a convenience store of sorts with only the cashier inside, feet propped up on the counter with a magazine in his hand.

Artemis pushed the door open, a jingle over their heads played as tiny bells bounced against one another. Artemis looked up to see the wind chime move, wind chimes being one of her favorite things in the world. Her face flushed red at the sight of mistletoe, she and Wally were directly underneath it.

"Food." Wally repeated again, trying to move his hands closer to the wrappers of candy and bags of Chicken Whizees lined up on the shelf.

_Thank God, he didn't notice. _

Artemis swallowed hard as the two moved further into the store. She was strangely let down in someway by the fact that Wally hadn't noticed what was above their heads but she shook the feeling off.

"How can I help you?" A man at the counter asked. He had a youthful face, oddly familiar to Artemis but in a way she couldn't place. It was as if she was looking at face she should know but I had never seen. She shook off the confusion just as she did the feeling she had a moment ago and pressed her fingers to her temple.

"Food!" Wally said grabbing a handful of items so quickly they both nearly fell over.

"Well," Artemis said, tugging Wally to the counter, "can you explain why you're the only shop open, what city this is and why they aren't any cars parked anywhere?" Artemis went straight to interrogative mode, her default reaction whenever she had feelings she didn't want to explain or understand.

"There was a blizzard the other day and I got stuck in here, haven't seen anyone for two days." The cashier tilted his head, smiling in a way that made Artemis think he knew more than he was telling. Her mind went to conspiracy theories. She started to wonder if this was some sort of undercover test. It would explain why Wally was so calm and the malfunction of the zeta tubes too… and why the others weren't picking up…

"City name?" The cashier smiled when she asked the question.

"A name doesn't matter, or a background or even making sense of something," the cashier put his hands on the counter, nodding his head to the beats of his own voice, "It's really the meaning behind everything that matters." Artemis made a face, certain that the man she was speaking to had just puffed a bong moments before their arrival.

"We don't need to get philosophical here Marley."

"Titles relate to emotions, emotions we choose to either hide, fight or give in to. It's all about those life choices." The cashier continued to ramble on, fixed on his own words while scanning out Wally's items, throwing them into a bag and handing them back to the speedster who was overly pleased by goodies which included bottles of soda among other things.

"Wally do you really need that!" She yelled, only half distracted by the cashier's odd response. Wally responded in turn with a shrug and a wince; the fall had banged up his shoulder blades as well. Artemis's face changed to one of concern, although she resisted it.

She began to lead him out the door when she remembered two things.

One, she didn't get a straight answer, and two it was freezing outside and this was the only warm place they could find.

"Uh sir, do you know where we can find a phonebooth?" Artemis asked, turning around to an empty counter.

"Well."

"What's up Arty?" Wally asked, leaning his body against the store window to open up a bag of food, bits of the chips slipping down his chin and onto his shirt, already cluttered with crumbs from earlier snacks.

"You don't find this whole thing strange?" Artemis's assassin skills were kicking in, her fingers snapping in ache for a weapon, her mind already training for an ambush, her body moving into an attack stance.

"You seem on edge." Wally rolled the bag of chips, putting them back in the bag and pulling out a chocolate bar, one with almonds, Artemis's favorite.

"Food?" Wally asked, lifting his hand with the candy bar in her direction.

"Wally, what the hell is going on?" Wally rolled his eyes. They adventure had yet to begin and Artemis was already getting testy.

"If there's one thing I've learned it's live in the moment because in the next one you could be dead." Wally moved to open the door, throwing the candy bar behind him. Artemis caught it, of course, but she wasn't completely over the idea of storming around the store in a fury.

Instead she chose to follow Wally out the door.

They walked in silence for a good 20 minutes; every once in awhile they'd stumble across a payphone only to find it was disconnected. All the lights were off, no sounds could be heard anywhere, no laughter of kids playing in the snow, no dogs barking as they walked past homes, there was no indication of life with the exception of that one cashier with few answers and far more questions.

"So we're essentially alone in an almost abandoned city." Wally said mischievously.

"Right, we need to find a way to get out, or else we'll be stuck here for hours, maybe even the whole day…"

"Doesn't sound like a bad thing, that is if we could just find something to do." Wally said, biting down on another chocolate bar. Above, the sky was already graying as if preparing for another downpour of snow. It was the first indication that things were making sense, most people might have left the city because of the blizzard, it was winter after all, December 1st, with 24 days till Christmas…

That's how Wally counted the days, based off of holidays, birthday cakes and Christmas presents. Artemis on the other hand didn't think like that, never could. Birthdays just meant harder training from her father, Christmas meant missions in places like Moscow. That was her childhood, holidays didn't mean a thing to her but the regular day of bruises and cuts, gunshots and wounds.

"Maybe if we just start knocking on doors we can reach someone." Artemis was trying to put things together, she didn't want to have fun, she wanted answers. That was her way, honesty, ironically, that is for all the secrets she had missions were things she took to heart, always.

_Then again how do I even know this is a mission._

"Maybe if we find something fun to do in the meantime, otherwise I may die of perpetual boredom." Wally said as they turned another building. It looked like they had arrived at the plaza of the city or something like that what with a giant fountain in front of them, angels at the very top in marble carved gowns and frozen water coming out of pots.

"I thought you were a scientist." Artemis said, trying to tease again, if only because her boredom started to outweigh her curiosity.

"I am!" Wally said grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the fountain. Even with his concussion, he was able to lift her up onto the ledge of the fountain with ease, not a single tip back or forwards. She was taken aback by the touch, his hands around her waist, even though she was technically more stable than he was at the moment. Her feet slid on the icy end of the fountain, tipping toward the angels.

"What are you doing!" She said, half laughing, half trying to sound angry with him for doing something spontaneous and without explanation while they were stuck in an unknown ghost city.

He put his arm around her again to keep her steady. He was behind her now, the plastic bags filled with food on both ends of her waist as he pulled them back to get a better grip on her.

She looked up to the sky and then down again, avoiding the gaze of the fountain's angels, feeling like a sinner in that moment for reasons she wasn't going to entertain.

"Wally, why do I get the feeling you know more than you're telling me." Wally turned her over and shook his head, he mumbled and sputtered a few words, having trouble putting together a sentence. Despite the ease in holding her, he was still anxious at the idea of holding her because well… well he couldn't quite explain that, and just like she wanted to repress, he wanted to deny.

Even though that wasn't the intention of the trip, not at all.

"You always think the worst of me huh?" Wally let her go, choosing to sit on the fountain's edge with his fingers pressed against he marble, eyes on the buildings ahead.

Still not one light in the city.

"Hey." Artemis took a seat next to him, rubbing her shoulder and listening to the drips of the ice behind them. Somehow the ice was warming despite how cold it was.

"Hey." Wally replied, turning to look at her but losing his courage and instead let his eyes fall down to see her fingers, her skin turning white.

"I don't think the worst of you, not all the time… I just, I'm… stubborn." Wally let out a laugh, an arrogant laugh, one that took away any warmth Artemis was feeling by his touch and expression.

"Wally!"

"Well, you are." He smiled, attempting to show his most endearing side by touching her finger with his own, gently rubbing it to add color back, he could almost feel her bones shake.

"So are you." She said, leaning in to poke the freckles on his face, something uncharacteristically sweet of her.

"Hey!"

"You deserve it." A few more minutes passed in silence when the two quickly realized how cold they were, without even thinking they moved closer to one another until their thighs touched. Leg to leg, with their hands dangerously close to one another, so close one might think they were a couple…

"So you really aren't worried about being stranded here?" Wally let out a low sigh, balling his hand into a fist to warm it. He started to wonder how cold Artemis must be, she seemed so small, not that much taller than Dick and her jacket didn't seem all that thick either.

"In a way, maybe….In another way not at all."

"Cryptic."

"I'm a man of mystery , of course you're full of mystery yourself." He didn't intend to add the last part but he couldn't stop himself. Everyday he wanted to know more about Artemis, her favorite things, the things she hated, her goals, her fears. It was a strange thing the way his mind acted every time he saw her or even hours after, always asking a million questions and having to stop himself from asking the questions, lest he seem interested in her, _that way_.

"It's not like I have anything to say." Artemis looked to the buildings ahead as Wally had done, each building made of stone with French windows and a few with red curtains, the town almost seemed European.

"You always have something to say Artemis, please."

"Wally please." It was her way of saying he was exactly the same. He made a face with the word "touché" written all over it.

"Okay so you're avoiding the subject now, trying to divert me I see, I see. So, is there a reason you never want to talk about anything besides super-heroing?" He nudged her, acting like a cat, with a weak purr coming from his throat. She made a face, pushing him back.

"That's not true and you know it, we talk about dogs and computers and I listen to you ramble about biology-"

"And you attempt to teach me French and I listen to you ramble about the latest novel you read yada yada."

"Exactly, so how can you say that's all we talk about." She was afraid of where this was heading, where the questions would lead and whether or not she'd be able to resist this charm of his that on most days made her feel annoyed but today it was… sweet.

"What I meant was we always talk about subjects that aren't… touchy."

"Ha, sorry didn't know you wanted in depth conversations." She could feel the panic setting in. Part of their dynamic was the fact that neither went into the deep things, never about what they were afraid of or any grand dreams. It was reality TV and the like, nothing more. But that was changing, she could see he was concerned and that both frightened and pleased her.

She liked to know that he cared.

Likewise, he wanted to care even though it scared the hell out of him too, what with all the insecurities he'd always had but tried to hide, until he met her, then he tried harder and failed worse at it.

He felt vulnerable with her.

"Sorry, I know that, well me being the nerd, the geek, uh 'loser-esk' I'm not the best person to talk to but you know if you ever-"

"You're not a loser." She said it conviction, her voice sounding so final in the statement he looked up at her without thinking. It was a mistake; her gray eyes were trained on his, they were fierce, determined to prove he was wrong and that she was right.

"Artemis?"

"You're not a loser Wally, you're a hero, an idiot at times, but you're a hero and you have a God damn good heart so if you ever say that about yourself again I'll kick you in the damn head with my damn boot over and over until you get it, got it?"

"Uh got it."

She pulled back, afraid of what she just said, then again she'd just spent the whole time walking and talking afraid of something, afraid of where they were, what went wrong, how they ended up here, the mistletoe, of Wally, her feelings that is and now she was terrified that he'd go on believing he really was a loser which for some reason was the worst thing of all.

"Good." She got up from the fountain and stormed down the street again, back the way they came, searching for light again even though she was somehow warm. Wally was behind her shortly, only the sound of plastic bags making noise as they stepped across the snow.

"Artemis, we might be stuck here for awhile." He was trying to fix things, to redirect the situation to where it was originally intended to go but before he could segue into something else, she was at it again.

"How the hell could you say that about yourself!"

"Artemis?"

"No Wally, you're always so damn cocky all the time and now you're saying crap like you're a loser when you aren't, and to me, do you think I think you're a loser?"

"N-no, I-"

"Because I've never thought that, no matter how much you piss me off, I've never thought that." She started to break into a run, unintentionally but the anger was swelling out from her fingers and into her limbs. She was so inexplicably angry.

"I didn't know you felt this strongly about it." Wally said, grabbing her hand, trying to slow her down. She fell back onto him as he pulled her into him again; this time she was annoyed by how quickly he went to grab her.

"Wally stop it!" He swung her around to look at her, dropping the plastic bags into the snow where they blended in nearly completely. He could see in Artemis's face she was angry what with the folds in her forehead and the puff of her cheeks, what startled him was the water in her eyes.

"Artemis!" He was afraid in a whole different way now, afraid that this whole evening where he'd planned something special just for the two of them for God knows what reasons why because they were suppose to be teammates, friends at the most, had turned into a disaster.

_I should have just left things alone, why the hell did I need to come up with some complex plan, damn it._

"No, you're…. you just don't get it." She didn't want to say it, she didn't want to explain, not with all the confusion, not with what the words would mean once they left her head and were spoken out loud.

"No, no I don't, please explain." He grabbed her shoulders to keep her in place, waiting for her to go on.

"I just…I just hate the idea that someone like you would ever think badly of themself because I… I like you and you're fine just the way you are." She hated herself for saying it but at the same time she was relieved. It felt good to come out and say the words, and there was still an absence of to what degree she meant them, whether it was as a person or something more, she wouldn't' say how much she liked this redheaded boy with the symmetrical freckles and Irish eyes, no way in hell.

"Oh." She punched him a second later, trying to break the tension of the situation, he let out an ow, partially fake because it was so cold he could barely feel it.

He laughed and she punched him again, and again, and again, and each time she was able to push him a little farther back but he didn't mind.

"This is you talking about your feelings."

"Shut up."

"It's kind of cute."

"Shut-up!"

She punched him again but this time she was laughing. He shook his head, tracing his fingers down her jacket to the zipper. She'd left it open this whole time. As she looked at him, counting freckles for the millionth time, although this time not as secretly as before, he grabbed the zipper, pulling it up to neck.

"Now you're warm." He said, patting her head. Before she could yell at him for treating her like a little kid, his fingers slipped down to her wrist, turning her hand over to fit with his fingers.

They were holding hands, their faces turning red.

Together they picked up the plastic bags and headed down the street again, back to where they'd started looking for light in the windows, looking for sound, for humans anywhere but still nothing, there were hand in hand but each explained it to themselves as a way of staying warm, still so awfully stubborn to admit a thing.

By the time they reached the end of the street, they were both cold, Artemis was tired, but Wally was somewhat satisfied with himself because they'd reached the end, it meant the field was just a few feet away now.

The field was where he intended to go all along, his way of putting a smile on Artemis's face after hearing she was having some money trouble from Dick and Z, that was really the whole intention of bringing her here, to this place in Scotland where his Aunt Iris had taken him every Summer with the rest of the West/Allen family.

It's where he was happiest, in the quiet field at the end of the town. Granted, it was warm when he went but the snow complimented the gray in her eyes; he liked that.

"So we turn back now?" She wasn't the least bit interested by the field but he knew it was because she had yet to take in the full effect of it. Rather than answer her, he pulled her along, all the way to the middle, tugging her hard, closer and closer to the center with her complaining for him to slow down.

It was the first time she started to question if he really was under a spell.

"Now look." He said, swinging her in front of him. She rolled her eyes again but only made it halfway as she was stopped by the sight of trees and ice all mixed into something of a winter wonderland of clear slickness and powered sugar. A small frozen pond gleamed with the low sunlight filtering from the gray clouds, the ray of it touching the ends of icicles. The tree branches tipped over in the ice, water dripping from it onto the snow.

It looked surreal, something far too beautiful for a girl like herself, or so she believed.

"Wally, it's… breathtaking."

_Breathtaking._

It wasn't a word she used, too romantic and clichéd for her personality and yet it was the word that came to mind. Her breath did indeed stop for a moment by the utter shock of the scene, like a fantasy from a fairytale she never got to read as a kid.

"So how about we have an experiment?" Artemis didn't get a chance to answer, by the time she'd turned around Wally was placing tubes into the liters of soda, placing them in between the plastic bags of food and pulling out rolls of candy.

"Wally, what are you doing?"

"When I was a kid," he said as he began to unwrap the mints, "We'd have a little ritual every Summer where we'd whisper all the bad things in our life and drop them in the soda here, and then watch it explode, hence all our problems would explode."

"Well that seems reasonable." She came closer to him, putting a hand on his shoulder as he worked. The whole idea was something she'd laugh at, maybe even make fun of but secretly it's just the type of thing she'd have wanted for her own childhood.

"Excited?" He said, handing her a few mints.

"Yeah, never got to do this as a kid." He stopped moving when she said that, mainly because it reminded him why he brought her here and then some. He was worried about her, worried about how much of her secret life was filled with bad memories. The idea that she never had moments like this hurt him, but also reaffirmed his mission here, as silly as it seemed now.

"It's never too late to be a kid Artemis." Despite the simplicity of the statement, he sounded far too wise for his age.

"You think so?"

"I do, and I can show you how."

"Is that so?"

"For as long as you'll have me." She wanted to scoff but the air wouldn't come, she couldn't breathe again and it wasn't just a thing to say, she could not bring air to her lungs, she was stuck in his words, warm again. For some reason, amidst the many reasons she couldn't quite pinpoint to explain her feelings, it was this statement that she found to be the most endearing out of anything he had yet to say to her so far.

"Then show me the way West." He smiled taking her free hand.

"Alright Arty, now all you have to do is whisper those bad things right and then dump them in the bottle but all at once okay, cause then we have to run."

"Okay okay." She looked down at the mints in her hand, there was seven total. She whispered seven bad things all at once, the money problems, her mother's health, her father, her sister's career, her fear of being found out, her worry for her future and lastly, she whispered how she never could let go of things and she so desperately wanted to in favor of the new things, the good things, the things without reason that she wanted for more reasons she couldn't explain.

"Ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready." Together they dumped the candies into the two soda bottles, Artemis jumping back to run away, but Wally grabbed her and only let her get a few inches past the erupting soda.

"I forgot to mention, when I said run, I didn't mean away." He pulled her close to him; the bottles of carbonated soda exploding like geysers up high, droplets falling on them like garnet rain, and onto the show as well.

"Wally!"

"Now you run around it!" He said, pulling her around and around the soda, both getting soaked in it in the sticky liquid. She wanted to be annoyed, she wanted to be disgusted, but she couldn't, not with the way he laughed, the way he jumped around in puddles with his tongue sticking out, she had to join him, it was impossible not to. They darted around and around like little kids, tasting the mixture of mint and the soft drink.

Eventually they collapsed on the snow, huffing and puffing, panting so loudly they missed the sound just thirty feet away from them, the sound of a generator turning on, the one that had gone off during the town's blizzard.

Before they could say a word, sparks of light went throughout the wires all around the homes, windows lighting up along with streetlights and traffic lights, everything that was once dark alive again, except of course for the little convenience store that was already lite. The cashier inside who smiled knowingly. He shut of the light of the store and headed outside quickly, stopping only to whisper a few words "Alright Nabu, I'm all done."

Sparks flew everywhere and the town was bright again.

They hardly noticed the light, their vision partially blurred by the soda, their senses in chaos from the cold snow, the heat of running about and the ecstasy of being so close to one another.

All of Artemis's worries, her problems were gone for the moment and now she just wanted to lay there with Wally, a teammate, a friend… maybe something more.

She didn't care right then because being alone with Wally West felt more perfect than anything she deserved, but everything she wanted and didn't know.

"Thanks Wally." She said, laying her head on his shoulder, his hand wrapping over her torso to press his nose onto her head, almost kissing her face.

"Anytime."


End file.
